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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#571

Post by econnor »

Surely you make your own intellectual life and take it with you wherever you go? You will think more interesting thoughts in a terrible place. Most ideas that matter are born from adversity or quiet reflection. And depth requires a bit of focus. For accessible culture and sophistication the candidates are fairly obvious.

Nigeria is going to be interesting and is full of independent thinkers. And I've heard good things about Panama City. But both possibly pricey. Belfast is way cheap.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#572

Post by s_dev »

fipple wrote: post #68

The answer here is places that are COLD. For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper. Minneapolis might be a good choice, or Chicago if you want a bigger atmosphere. You’ll have to put in elbow grease to create an intellectual milieu but it is there.

GDP is corrolated with distance from the equator where it's warmest. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/03/20/why-is-there-s...

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#573

Post by growlist »

dejv wrote: post #520
growlist wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live near Brighton and am moving away soon: house prices in Sussex pretty much anywhere with decent transport links are insane (the house I'm buying in the West Country would be more than double the price over here, around £1m!!), pollution is bad, there is drugs and crime, loads of the shops are just overpriced crap for idiot hipsters, and it's always crowded with tourists. It's such a shame because Sussex is love…

You can say that about any city of major size. If you live in Brighton, you don't have to visit Beach and clubs around Middle street (I guess this is where a lot of crime and fighting happen) and you dont have to go to Lanes and areas around Pavillion (hipster shops and tourists). Brighton for me was more about open mic events, lots of concerts, hikes in nature, coffee shops and work. I barely seen any tourists.

Sure, but some cities are worse than others, and Brighton is particularly bad for pollution and drugs. But then my feeling is that SE UK in general is unpleasantly overcrowded. For example I don't bother trying to go anywhere on a bank holiday any longer because the roads will be miserable, and anywhere apart from obscure destinations will have hordes of daytrippers. Too many people with too much money and too little space.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#574

Post by pscanf »

hnzix wrote: post #283
pscanf wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been living in Vilnius (and surroundings) for the past two years, and I would definitely recommend it. The city is very cozy, well kept, and relatively cheap (small flats in the center run for around 500€/month).

What's the electronic music scene like?

No idea, sorry. :)

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#575

Post by panorama »

lifebeyondfife wrote: post #528
panorama wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before I entered this thread, I was already thinking about spending a couple months from late Jan to late March in Edinburgh. Could you expand on the weather and the Brexit warning you mentioned? Thanks!

No problem. The unpredicatable nature of weather in Scotland means that if it looks bright and sunny in the morning, you still need to leave your house with a jacket because you cannot guarantee that it won't rain heavily later in the day. Depending on when you take lunch or arrive at work, some people will be drenched, some will enjoy clear skies and sunshine. This isn't necessarily like this every day, but prepare…

Thanks for the very thorough reply. I hadn't realized the exit would occur next Spring, which is around the time I plan to visit. I understand this can be tumultuous for residents, do you think it will also affect tourists?

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#576

Post by ur-whale »

galfarragem wrote: post #269
ur-whale wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the income tax situation in Portugal?

Portuguese IRS: https://github.com/galfarragem/learning-notes/blob/master/no...

So basically, if you make more thank 50k euros per year, you start working for your own benefit around mid-june. Yeah ... pass.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#577

Post by blocked_again »

me551ah wrote: post #567

You can also consider NCR , India. It's the national captial region which includes Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. Pros. Internet - 1 Gbps internet at ~20$ a month Lots of great colleges - IIT D, JNU, AIIMS, DCE Housing - You can get a 2500ft 3BHK high rise condo in gurgaon for ~800$/month. With that you'll get a jacuzzi, modular kitchen, round the clock security, pool , gym etc. Labour is cheap - Maids which do cleaning,…

Please don't. Delhi and NCR is overpopulated and is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The weather is just terrible. Very unsafe cities. Also one of the worst cities in India for women. And you would not be making anywhere close to what you make in SFO. There are good Universities when compared to other Indian universities but I don't think nobody calls Delhi an Intellectual city. Has nothing to justify moving from SFO unless you are a lot into Indian politics probably.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#578

Post by dtkav »

ACow_Adonis wrote: post #120
dtkav wrote: post #34

I just moved to Hobart, Australia from SF. It's quite affordable. I pay A$400 /mo rent in a share house, and walk 20 mins to a downtown co-working space every day (also A$400 /mo). Lifestyle is pretty incredible. It's small, but still a state capital city, so there's plenty going on. Hobart is also the home port for the Australian and French Antarctic programs, so a lot of smart folks come through. Plus it was a tria…

I live across the pond, and though I love Hobart and tassie, intellectual is not exactly in the top 10 words I'd expect most people to use to describe most australian culture, let alone in its smaller cities. Edit: which is mainly why I'm in Melbourne. Edit2: though to be fair, looking at half the suggestions so far, no one seems to be taking said criteria very seriously.

Yeah, I was thinking of the "focus on my own intellectual pursuits" part of op's post. I imagined this to be something like writing open-source software, or doing math.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#579

Post by nomadiccoder »

assblaster wrote: post #433
tropdrop wrote: post #147

If you would like to remain in United States and do not mind having proper seasons, I would strongly consider Chicago, the last affordable big city in the United States. University of Chicago pulls a robust intellectual community (81 Nobel Laureates), but there is also a deep intellectual history around the arts and music that transcends the work of the university - something that I'm not sure I can say for a place l…

Chicago is a terrible option: Major parts of the city are off limits to white people due to threats from gangs on racial basis, but also random violence from crowds of "youths" who troll around nicer areas of the city looking for victims. Insane traffic, but if you want public transportation, you can look forward to dirty buses and subways, and again, threats of violence directed at you. Miserable long winters. High…

This is just wrong, except for the politics part.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#580

Post by balladeer »

CalRobert wrote: post #256
sneak wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berlin is nothing like Silicon Valley. It’s a great city but job offers there are 60-80% lower salaries compared to the US, which makes Berlin being marginally cheaper (but with higher taxes) not really worth it.

The complete elimination of auto expenses helps a lot. And frankly, it's hard to put a price on 6 weeks' _guaranteed_ vacation per year. And true, salaries are lower, but 60-80%?? Obviously headhunters and published ranges are to be taken with a grain of salt but a HH was trying to entice me with 90k in Berlin for data engineering a while ago and that, while not SV money, is better than "60-80% less"

But that's almost everywhere in Europe - salaries being a lot lower than in US, right?

PS. Based on my conversations with a friend who moved from Dallas to Amsterdam. He was in US just for ~3 years after completing his MS. He always wanted to work and live in EU for some years before returning home. He stayed in US for the loan.

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